When performing surveying of a subterranean structure for identifying subterranean bodies of interest (e.g., hydrocarbon reservoirs, fresh water aquifers, gas injection zones, etc.), data points are collected by survey receivers in response to a stimulus. The survey receivers can be electromagnetic (EM) receivers or seismic receivers. The stimulus can be produced by a source, such as an EM source or a seismic source.
Imaging of a subterranean structure is based on building a forward modeling operator. The forward modeling operator relates physical properties of the subterranean structure to measurement data collected by a survey spread that includes survey receivers. Once formed, the forward modeling operator can be used to build an imaging operator for predicting a quantity of interest associated with a subterranean structure, by applying the imaging operator on input data, such as measured data and/or prior information.
Challenges associated with computing imaging operators include accuracies of forward modeling operators and complexities of deriving such imaging operators.